OREANDA-NEWS  By the end of February 2024, the ruble became the main foreign trade currency of Russia. It accounted for 41.6 percent of all payments for domestic exports (the maximum since August 2023) and a record 38.1 percent of import transactions, the Izvestia newspaper reports, citing statistical data from analysts of the Central Bank (CB).

During this period, the yuan's share of export revenue decreased to 30.2 percent, although it was at the level of 40.7 percent in January. The Chinese currency was also used less frequently in payments for imports — 32.3 percent in February versus 38.5 percent in January, the regulator said.

The interviewed analysts attributed the increase in the share of the ruble in Russian foreign trade operations to a number of factors. Among the main ones, they named a reduction in currency risks when using the ruble, an increase in confidence in it from foreign counterparties and a surplus in the trade balance of the Russian Federation, which provides the necessary liquidity for external partners.

The ruble secured the status of the main foreign trade currency of Russia by the end of 2023. In 12 months, the share of the Russian currency in payments for exports with European and Asian countries, as specified in the Central Bank, reached 39 percent. In turn, the dollar and the euro accounted for 31.5 percent of all payments, which turned out to be two times lower than the level of 2022.